


Not you, never you

by Monmonjimae



Series: Smokes and Constants [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Humor, BAMF Haruno Sakura, BAMF Hatake Kakashi, BAMF Uchiha Sasuke, BAMF Uzumaki Naruto, Child Neglect, Haruno Clan - Freeform, Haruno Sakura-centric, Hatake Kakashi is a Troll, Hatake Kakashi is so Done, I gave Sakura a sister, Naruto is Just Naruto, Other, POV Haruno Sakura, PTSD, Sasuke is a little shit, Smart Uzumaki Naruto, Strong Haruno Sakura, Tag As I Go, Team Dynamics, makes more sense than canon ever will, sakura is the evilest gremlin, there's so many ocs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-08 12:50:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 18,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21476299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Monmonjimae/pseuds/Monmonjimae
Summary: Sakura solves her problems like how all shinobi solves them, with her fists and explosive up the enemy’s ass!…Ok maybe notallshinobi.OrI gave Sakura a sister and a whole ass clan; Needless to say it messed up a lot of things.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura & Yamanaka Ino, Haruno Sakura/Yamanaka Ino, Hatake Kakashi & Original Character(s), Honestly I don't know - Relationship, Hyuuga Hinata/Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke & Original Character(s)
Series: Smokes and Constants [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1518752
Comments: 40
Kudos: 167





	1. chapter 1: b e t

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic will contain explicit language, graphic descriptions of violence, mentions of mental trauma and may contain potentially triggering topics.   
I'll warn you at the beginning of chapters if they contain graphic descriptions and/or triggers, but swearing would be pretty constant through out the whole thing. If you ever find a topic I mention triggering, please let me know and I'll put in a warning for it.

If there’s one thing Sakura wants in life, it’s to make her sister proud; which is clearly why her hands are currently scratching away at the ninja academy entry test in desperate hopes of being accepted. Definitely not because she made a bet with a clan heir and now her dignity’s on the chopping block. No, not at all. 

‘I could’ve gone to the one for civilians, no one’s forcing me to become a monetised hit man but _ noooo _ , I just _ had _ to be full of myself and go for the ninja born one. But then again, everyone knows people who graduate from the civilian training institution never gets above genin.’ She lets out a huff. ‘The world’s full of monsters and I’m going to become one of them damn it-! Two plus two equals four and add fifteen which is nineteen, no I got it right.’

She pauses for a beat before delving back in to kick the crap out of the test, her internal brooding-logue continues with the occasional interruption of basic mathematical calculations. 

‘I can’t fail this test, not when I’ve gotten so far already! This is the last one. Come on Sakura! Think!’

God knows the testing process for civilians to get into the ninja academy is more like ripping your balls out than an actual test, you have to go through _ four _ testing phases; language, math, mental and physical. Which is hell compared to the free for all for the established clans of Konoha, they don’t even need to be put through a test, it’s just ‘Oh you’re from an old clan? Welcome to the staby staby academy!’. 

Civilians being the only ones to get cock-blocked because of their heritage? Go figure.

‘I wish uncle could just sponsor me through this, _this_ **_thing_**. But _noooo_, I don’t qualify since my clan’s not civilian _or_ ninja enough!’ She wiggles her pencil between her fingers. ‘Wait, if I get into this one does that mean I have to compete with clan kids…? Oh well, my sister says you can solve anything with apples if you throw them hard enough! Or was it it’ll keep people away if you throw them hard enough?’ She shrugs and taps her pencil against the test scroll, swiping at her short bangs when it stabs into her eyes, she briefly wonders if she’d get thrown out for strangling her own hair. ‘Wait so if one divided by two is a half of one then a fifth of one is, huh?...I think it’s, maybe... c?’

A scowl bleeds through her thoughts. ‘This is stupid, my sister’s going to be proud of me whether I stab people or not. Okay that’s a bad example but I _really _need to win that bet with Sasuke cuz' he’s completely wrong! Clearly, _I’m_ the superior one at playing ninja, he doesn’t even know what that word means- which is _exactly _why I’m going to ace this test and rub it in his stinky face.’

“Halfway mark!” The proctor’s voice booms through the room like an elephant’s howl.

Her brain blue screens at the announcement and her hands stutter to a stop. She’s done a third of the test and it’s only been multiple choice, if she needs thirty minutes to do a _third_ then she won’t be able to even complete the damn thing. She grits her teeth and her eyes burn with determination, this is for her pride damn it! (And for her time wasting away at the library when she could’ve been spending time with her sister.) She pulls up her sleeves, jabs her pencil to the page and went to work. 

Sakura burns through the rest of the multiple choice in what she thinks is around five minutes, stumbled through the short answer with balls of steels and pales at the last section, worded questions. Now hear her out, she’d been studying at the library everyday for the past few weeks from dawn to dusk. Did she do practise questions? Hell yeah she did. Memorise the multiplication table? She tried. But worded questions? She avoided those like the plague and now it came back to bite her in the ass for not studying the things she doesn’t know, which in retrospect is what she should have been doing rather than sharpening her pencil for the fifth time in a row. 

She blows out a lung of air as if it would turn her into a dragon and flame her past self’s ass. ‘Nee-chan’s been waiting outside all morning Sakura. You gotta focus. Just think about winning the bet. Think about punching Sasuke’s stupid face.’ 

Okay, this is fine. She’s got this.

She squints at the first question and mutters it under her breath. “There are five enemies on the bridge. If a ninja has three shuriken and he uses shuriken shadow clone technique to multiply it by a thousand, how many shurikens would hit an enemy?”

No this isn’t fine, she’s _ screwed _. 

‘Okay, so if there’s three shuriken.’ She jots down the number three as sweat drips down her neck. ‘And the thingy makes it turn into a thousand times of its original.’ She multiplies three by a thousand and scrawls three thousand under the equation. ‘And there’s five enemies on a bridge, how many does it hit?’ Three thousand divided by five is solved with long division, which gives her sixty. ‘So sixty every ninja.’ She wraps up the answer and rushes on to the next, continuing the cycle of panicking, solving and scurrying on. 

"Five minutes left!"

'Crap.' She scans through the rest of the questions and finds a mine field packed with words. Her insides blends, breath beats like a bursting sprint and it drums in her ears. She gloss through the words and it doesn't register. She tries it again but her brain refuses to read. She tries to calm, tries to breathe but her body refuses with nothing but sickness rushing up her throat. 

It's only the thought of her sister that wacks her brain into order and kicks it into high gear. She tears through the questions, caring little for the cramp in her wrist or the hair in her eyes. She scratches at the paper even as the pencil is worn into a stump, carves out the answers with nothing but shreds of wood. 

"Time' up! Put down your pens and fold up your test! Anyone who disobeys will be disqualified!" 

Her face is flushed with effort as she barely makes the clock for the fourth question and disappointment settles like lead at the back of her tongue. She wasn’t even close to finishing, barely even grazed victory with the tips of her nails and it fades from her grasp, snickering at her failure. What’s she going to say to her sister who’s been waiting out in the snow for half a day? Sorry I didn’t study enough and made you wait for nothing? She might as well snort half a pound of cinnamon, at least it’ll be less painful than to see the failure in her sister’s eyes. But it’s over, there’s nothing she can do now unless she wants to be disqualified for cheating, there’s nothing she could do now because she didn’t do enough to prepare. It’s going to be her fault if she doesn’t make the cut, God did she really think that her uncle would even want to sponsor her in the first place? How ignorant. How _ pathetic _.

She hands the chunin her scroll and mumbles out a thanks, mouth numb like the fire in her heart. The proctor at the front tells them to get the hell out and she has to wrap her scarf -handmade by her sister- around her, trudge her way to the door and be swept out by the buzzing crowd. It’s not like she didn’t want it to be over, it’s just the thought of letting her sister down- it makes her heart drop into her throat. 

The world’s blinding outside even as the snow pisses on, parents and grandparents alike cluster around the academy doors as if welcoming home a war hero, their smiles so warm it makes the snow look like summer rain. She searches for her sister in the crowd but not one fits the description, a mop of black has her running but they pull away with their wife by their side and their kid on their shoulders. Her ribs shatter with rejection, had her sister abandoned her? No, she would never…Right? She wobbles to a tree and slumps down against it onto the ground, heart too heavy to move when she notices the swing tied to its branch. 

“Snowflake?”

“Nee-chan!” It comes out as a startled shout and she stumbles up, grinning in disbelief. “You’re here!” 

She eyes her sister as if she’d just pulled a mace out her ass. “...I am.”

“Nee-chan I-” It gets stuck in her throat and she coughs out the forming lump. “I uh, thanks for waiting for me!”

Kokai doesn’t know what in the seventh hell is happening to her sister but it scares her more than it should. “Okay… So how did the tests go?”

“I did it.” Her hands sweat even in clouds of snow. “Yeah. So. What uh, What’s for dinner?” 

...Perfect, absolutely seamless. She spits on her pathetic attempts at redirecting the conversation and mentally reminds herself to practise in the mirror for the sake of her dignity, because she’s six now, not _ three _.

Her sister raises a brow and her whole face just screams what the fuck. She chuckles a sigh, as if saying ‘oh well’ to the insanity that was her attempt at redirecting the topic, opening her arms like the beginning of a hug as a silent invitation.

Sakura hesitated for a second before sliding herself into her sister’s winter haori and melts at how warm it is, she hugs her sister’s waist and smothers her face into the smell of red bean paste and ash, liquefying further into her turtleneck, liquefying into the feel of home. A trickle of laughter bubbles from Kokai and she heaves her sister up by her armpits until Sakura’s hugged against her chest, basically sitting on one of her forearms. 

They set out for the streets and the further they go from the academy, the smaller the knot in her chest seems to get, maybe her sister won't be as mad as she thought, maybe she'd went home instead of waiting all morning, maybe she wouldn't gaze down dispassionately at her pathetic tale. The girl monkeys her arms around her sister’s neck and tucks her chin onto the crux of her shoulder, she finds that listening to the crunch of snow below her makes her feel like a toddler again, and for once she quite likes it. A box of something warm is tapped to her cheek and she sniffs at it in wonder, her eyes widen. 

Dango. Her sister went and brought her dango. Her stomach turns to stone and drops into her pelvis as she takes the container, peeling back the lid to find little balls of white covered in her favourite red bean sauce. No, It wasn’t bought, her sister had made it, for her. The little puffs of chewiness had even been put on a stick for her convenience and there was more sweet paste than sauce, just how she likes it. She chows down on a stick and her eyes stings like allergies. 

“What do you want to be in the future?”

She feels the rumble through her skin and her chest crumbles with it. “I dunno.” She twirls a stick between her fingers as if it contains the answers to her woes.

Kokai tightens her hold on her and dances past various carts and matts, occasionally nodding hellos to an uncle or aunt. She sighs. “...Sakura, you do know the dangers of being a shinobi right?” The girl falls silent and it’s all the answer she needs. “We’re basically glorified thugs y’know.”

She wraps her haori around them as they lapse into silence. The marketing district is quite crowded today even as dusts of snow pilfers the vegetables and half butchered meats, friends crowds around each other like penguin huddles as they giggles about various things, the average shopper can be spotted haggling about the prices for winter squash and stores lets out warm glows of homely cooking. The market in winter is better than anything the summer market can even hope to pull out of it’s ass, gone are the pilfering flies and the shrieks of produce prices, good riddance to the sweltering sun, the stench of decaying flesh and the chatters of fools. That will be something she’ll never miss.

Her eyes fall on her sister’s swinging ponytail that she ties to the base of her head and she wonders, she wonders for how long she’s been growing her hair, she wonders for how long has she missed her father, letting her hair grow in the remembrance of a man that loved so much he could love no more. She wonders how many years have passed for her sister’s waves to grow to such a length and she wonders if she will let her hair grow too, but she won’t, because her mama had short hair for most of her life so she will too. 

“I wanna be strong nee-chan.” She lets the stick fall and her energy leaks out of her. “I wanna be a doctor but I need to be a ninja first.” 

She sighs from her nose as the market fades into low hum streets, she turns a corner and heads towards the Haruno compound. Snow dusts her cheek and melts into tears that don’t fall. ‘Doctor huh?’ She chuckles at the irony. “You know, my dad was a medic-nin, a really good one too.”

“Really?” She perks up, her sister doesn’t talk about her father often and when she did it was always in vague gestures of her hand. “Did he have the spinny eyes too?”

She giggles a mellow tune. “Yeah, he copied the mystical palm and the hospital nearly kicked him out for it.”

“But isn’t that cheating?” Sakura gasps, scandalised. 

Her eyes crinkle like firewood. “That would have depend on your definition of cheating.”

“Nee-chan!” 

Kokai laughs like a tittering cat at her gawking tone and her eyes gleam with something indulgent. She strides into the forest that fenced the inner circle of Konoha, separating the defendant and the defended. It was quite strategic really, if the village was invaded from the outside the major shinobi clans would protect the civilians from the outskirts, if the village was invaded from inside, then civilians would be inconsequential enough to be used as fodder and then the clans would have them cornered. It’s a perfect plan... in theory. 

She takes another bite out of the dango her sister made and hums delightedly at the sacred way it melts in her mouth, the red bean paste has exactly the right level of sweetness and the dango with precisely the right amount of chewy goodness. It’s the food of gods but it feels like felonies on her tongue. “...Nee-chan?”

She hums in reply, waving past the branches and spiderwebs. She has to hop over a particularly large tree that's fallen due to some, ah, _ unregulated experiments _from her clan members. 

“I did really bad on the test.”

“So?”

That threw Sakura in for a loop, maybe her sister didn’t get what she meant? “No, I did really really bad, I didn't even finish the test.” She tries again, bracing herself because surely she’d be mad as all hell right?

“So?” Kokai sighs as she ducks under some stray ninja wire. “Snowflake, the tests don’t actually determine whether you get in or not y’know, the village is always in need of more and more ninja, it doesn’t matter how badly you did on the test, you’re going to be accepted either way.” Kunais shoots out from the trees, she leaps back with her sister in her arm, the poor ground before her stabbed to hell and back. She scowls and mutters curses under breath. “And this is why you should always take the proper path home because OUR CLAN’S FULL OF GODDAMN LUNATICS!”

A distant sorry echoes back from their clan grounds but they didn’t bother getting their kunai back, it’s better to walk away with your body parts intact instead of being gutted. If there was one thing Harunos were famous for, it had to be their explosive and often butt-hole clenching anger, it didn’t matter who you are, family or not, toying with a Haruno’s fury is an undeniable death wish. 

And right now? They'll be lucky if they walk away with their spine inside their body. 

She glares in their general direction before she sighs as if she’d put on a few thousand years. “As I was saying, the test is only implemented to test your skills and categorise you for training and classes, of course age groups matter as well, but there are lots of different skill levels and classes within the same age.”

She nods in a stupefied haze, if she wasn’t currently cuddled in her sister’s arms she would have fainted right then and there. “So, the tests are completely useless- I could have just slept through the thing and still got in?” Her head tilts up to the sky where light spills through the trees as if to pray for a god somewhere. “Then why don’t clan kids need a test then?”

“Oh that’s cuz’ their clan already has a report on hand.” She shrugs nonchalantly. “We don’t really do those kinda things since we have enough paperwork already, god knows you can practically swim in the paperwork needed for trade.”

‘If there’s a god out there, take me now.’ Hysterics spreads through her voice. “Thanks nee-chan…”

She grins. “Anything for my little sister! Uh... Why’re you so pale…? Sakura? Sakura!” 

Sakura visited the pure lands longer than she ever should’ve.

_ *~ Stay with us for next time on not you, never you!~* _

_ What do you mean Inko planted weed in the forest-!? - “Please for the love of crepes clean your room or else it’ll start spawning mold rats.”- Her sister was right, her clan is full of _ ** _lunatics_ ** _ . _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took me way longer than it should have...  
Also- Would you guys be interested in Sakura and Kokai's design? Like how they dress and stuff? Because everyone else will pretty much dress the same... Actually maybe except Ino… 
> 
> Correction: Would you guys be interested in Sakura, Kokai and Ino's design?


	2. Chapter 2: SIX YEARS!?!?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Haruno clan kinda gets introduced in this chap, but there is more to them than it meets the eye ;)
> 
> Now would be your time to start looking underneath the underneath my dear reader~

They got home around twelve-ish after her clan swamped her for her fainting spell, her cheeks have been so thoroughly pinched that they might have been mince at this point. It’s a God send that half her clan are medics or else she would’ve had to waddle back home with swollen cheeks and her sister cackling five miles per hour. After they’d collectively decided that yes, she was indeed right in the head and no she didn’t drink some magical mushroom stew on the way back- wait what do you mean Inko planted weed in the forest-!? (So apparently, Inko, being the big alpha galaxy brain that he is, mistook baby marijuana for baby poison ivies and planted those instead, what was he going to do with the ivies? They don’t know, but they had a nagging feeling that it has a little something to do with a nasty shopkeeper and his toilet paper.) They fucked back off to their previous tasks with the same amount of cheer they’d greeted her with, which is comparable to finding water in the Sahara for some of the pisser ones. 

She chews on a skewer of dango as she mules over the chakra theory displayed on the book in her lap, she’s been staring at it for so long the words doesn’t even seem to register anymore. She grunts out the words in hopes it would finally make sense in her lizard brain, it doesn’t. “Nee-chan!”

“Yeah!?”

“I don’t get it!”

There’s a moment of stillness before she hears a door sliding and footsteps going up the stairs, they’re more like the stomps of an elephant than the soft mouse patters they usually were. Kokai arrives through Sakura’s bedroom door in somewhat of a chaotic fashion; she’s lost her heavy haori and is now flaunting her biceps with her skin tight turtleneck, sweat clings to her skin even as the temperature continues to drop and her face is flushed with what seems like training exhaustion. “Is it the shape transformation one?”

“No.” She flips the book to face her sister. “It’s chakra theory.”

She staggers across the room and collapses onto her bed, her ponytail barely clinging on for dear life as she wipes at her sweat. “Which volume? First? Third?”

“The fourth one.” She pouts her lips in concentration, finger tracing the words as she reads. “This whole chapter doesn’t make sense y’know. It’s supposed to be about chakra theory but all it’s talking about is jutsus!” 

“Lemme see?” She takes the book from her sister’s hands and skims through it without much thought, her brain clicks. “Ah, okay, so what the chapter is trying to say is that in order to understand the correlation between ninjutsu and chakra, you need to understand the way chakra is manipulated internally, which is done using nature transformation on a molecular level. So basically chakra itself has the properties of both gas and liquid when left alone, and the body is able to manipulate that-” She glances at the lost look on her sister’s face. “Have you read the ones on nature and shape transformation?” 

She shakes the dumb look off her face. “Well I didn’t really get it, so I thought I could just read these ones first.” 

“Show?” 

She goes to root through her bookshelf and cringes at the state of her room, there were books and paper scattered everywhere, it was on the floor, the bed, the walls, hell there’s even a few stacked on her lamp. It’s gotten to the point where she can’t even see her favourite pink rug anymore, but it’s still _ functional... _ Kinda. Pancakes bless her raised bed or else she would’ve drowned in god knows what had she opted for a futon instead, there are more..._things_ in that pile than a few sheets of paper. Her fingers trace the spines of her books before she finds the right one, she shows it to her sister. “Nee-chan, is it this one?”

Her sister gives her an odd look as she sorts through some junk that she’d scooped off the floor, cringing back into herself when she sees the mold- no, the newly discovered civilisation in a bottle of ink. “No? Didn’t Inko give you volume 8? Jesus christ the savoir of trees- is that moving?” 

“There’s volumes?”

She glances at the book in her hands and her eyebrows shot up to her hair line. “...Did he give you the standard issue one?” She bites off a swear as she throws the _ thing _into the trash chute. “Working for Konoha must’ve killed his brain cells or something, god knows their books are horrible. Hang on, I’ll go get mine.” 

She blinks as her sister strides out her room, was Konoha’s standard issue really that bad? It can’t be, right? They _ are _one of the bigger hidden villages so they must have some semblance of a brain, but then again she might be expecting too much, her clan does specialise in chakra and anything Konoha ‘discovers’ is probably plagiarised from the Haruno's post war texts. Hidden Villages are absolute bigots in that regard, the sticks up their asses are so huge that apparently, anything they lay their oh so prestigious eyes on automatically becomes their property, including breakthroughs in science.

Kokai marches back in with three tombs in tow, each about as thick as her femur. She lowers them down with the utmost care onto her mattress and it sinks in like volcanic rock in water, you could probably kill someone by tapping them on the head with these old bricks. “Well here’s the first three, when you finish those I’ll get you the next ten.” 

“...Nee-chan… How-how long did it take you to read all of these?”

“Oh, only a few years.” She shrugs her shoulder to stretch out the strained muscles. “I think about five or six-ish, there’s still plenty for me to study but if you only want to be a medic nin, it’ll take around…” She gives it a thought. “You already know the bare bones of it so... Maybe six years?”

She feels light headed at this point, six years? She won’t be done until she turns twelve! “Can I just… Not do it?”

“Well you’re expected to mould chakra with ease by the time of duty y’know.” She chuckles at the slump of Sakura’s shoulders and waves her hand dismissively. “Oh come on, it’ll only take you a year or two.” 

“A year or two for moulding!?” She gawks at her sister and nearly trips off her bed. “But that’s easy! I can do that right now!”

Kokai smirks like a cat who got the cream. “Did you _really_ think I meant internally? I meant externally Snowflake, that’s literally the basis of our skills.” 

“But I wanna do seals…” She groans. “I wanna make things go _ boom _nee-chan!”

She furrows her brows as if a dragon decided to crap on her yard. “...Sakura no.”

“But why.” She whines and side eyes the crusty ass tombs. “The rest of the clan does it so why can’t I?”

“Because _ they’ve _ studied the fundamentals so we trust them not to blow our houses up.” She stares at her pointedly, spins on her heel and walks back down to their yard. “Now off you go, if you need help with anything _ other _than blowing people up, I’ll be outside.”

“Nee-chan!” She draws out the word in hopes that it would somehow magically make her sister stay, and hey it actually worked.

”Also-” She falls back with her hand on the door frame and Sakura perks up from her brooding spot. “Please for the love of crepes clean your room or else it’ll start spawning mold rats. I don't want to burn the house down a second time after _that_ little stunt.”

She slumps back into her sad little ball of bitterness when her sister leaves her to the wolves without a second thought. She probably should have timed proclaiming her pyromaniac tendencies, because now she’s left alone with 50 thousand pages of pure literary pain and no back out plan. She glares at the dusty books without an ounce of interest. “...Damn it.”She begrudgingly heaves a volume besides her, a little scared at the possibility of it crushing her legs and glares into the pages.

Before she knew it day had turned to dawn and they had begun to prepare dinner, she could smell the wisps of onion and fish as it floated up from the first floor and into her room, clatters of spatula against pot has her snapping up like a dog at the word 'Walkies'. She leaps off her bed and down the stairs, swerves around the corner and ploughs into their couch. 

Her sister's glare has her trotting back with her tail between her legs. 

She huffs as she stuff her face into the book once more. Not going to lie, it was actually pretty interesting… Okay, it’s as interesting as watching a train crash, in that it’s so gut wrenchingly horrifying that you can’t help but look on in terror, transfixed by the spray of blood and trauma. That’s her experience as she zones in on the diagrams of human nerves and, dare she say it, people bits and exactly how chakra functions in that particular, ahem, _ region _ . It’s not the dicks and tits that scare her, no it’s the fact that volume _ one _contains detailed methods of how to destroy the sensory, motor and chakra nerves in a living human in and out of battle, with nothing but your bare hands and a tiny smidge of chakra, to say it was horrifying was an understatement but goddamn it was it interesting. 

It really makes her wonder why her clan is classified as a civilian clan when clearly they’re more capable than half the shinobi force. Her clan is full of people who can decapitate kages with a flick of the wrist, people so brilliant that their clan is leagues ahead the rest of the world in seals and technology; radios? They invented that. Tvs? They invented that. Microphones? They didn’t invent it but they helped. It might be something to do with the fact that in terms of pure unfiltered size they can take on three hidden villages and still win, counting in the people who can use chakra, which is eighty percent of them, they can raid a county and come out on top without a single nick on their shoulders. In other words, Harunos are one hell of a giant clan, they literally make up one third of the population in Konoha and occupies their own little (colossal) island. 

But then again, did they really expect to let Harunos single-handedly adopt their entire orphan population and believe that they’d stay as a _ whittle small cute civvie clan _? Fools, the lot of them. They’d never taken into account the reasons behind their ritualistic adoptions, only seeing the benefit of a bolstering economy. It’s hilarious really, they’d forgotten who’d founded the village alongside the fancy Uchihas and the friendly Senjus, who supported their pathetic economy long before the village had established their trade routes, the clan behind the curtain, the clan who connected it all. 

Ah, the perils of being an old clan. The world seems to forget you when you don’t have eccentric kekkei genkais. Who cares about Harunos right? All they have is better chakra control, it’s not like chakra is the foundation of all life forms, never mind that it’s the thing keeping you alive, you know, maybe watch out or they might slice your balls off from the inside. 

Good thing they teach history before chakra theory because otherwise they’d end up with a bunch of flag waving xenophobes, leave that to her paralysis demons _ please _. 

She wants to rip out her eyes as she reads through another in depth paragraph about all the things that she shouldn’t ever have to know about humans and their fragile innards- how does her clan even figure out all this stuff- oh wait yeah, _ shinobi _. You know what she takes it back, she takes it all back, this isn’t interesting at all- this should be a case study for psychological warfare! 

Her sister was right, her clan is full of _ lunatics _. 

"Sakura! Dinner's done!"

But first, dinner. 

_ *~ Stay with us for next time on not you, never you!~* _

_ In which Sakura’s nemesis is revealed and Kokai is done with a certain Uchiha's bullshit- but hey, aunty’s stew is pretty good! _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHO'S READY FOR BABY [Spoiler], MOODY [Spoiler], MAMA [Spoiler] AND PAPA [Spoiler]!!! 
> 
> Edit: Sorry for the double update on the same chapter, but there's something wrong with the end notes so if you see two just ignore the second one, the second one is from the last chapter 
> 
> @monmonjimae on tumblr or #smokesandconstants for everything related to this series (also on tumblr)


	3. what do you guys think?

[IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE/DILEMMA]  
Okay y'all I'm stuck, I've rewrote this chapter again and again with different plot threads and in different plot timelines, safe to say I'm getting no where. As you all know I've deleted two chapters, and it's because I felt like it didn't fit into what this fic is? Like the plot I've planned has a lot of dark themes and such but I don't know where to start? Because this fic has a very light hearted tone to it and it makes me so conflicted about the direction it's headed. 

Here's the things I'm debating over:

1- Split this into two fics, one deals with the darker themes and this one could just be a light hearted adventure crack fic with the same characters and au. (The darker one will probably feature Kokai as the mc...for reasons. Or it could be Saku-cakes who knows?)  
2- Keep it in the same fic and the same plot threads, keep the light hearted descriptions and keep the plot line I've planned. (Kinda ehhh about this one since the tone won't fit with the themes)  
3- Slowly descend this fic into darkness as Sakura ages and grows into what her clan is, will still feature crack but will also explore darker themes and such, will probably make you cry. (Might be getting my vote depending on comments and general opinion)  
4- Just rewrite the damn thing again for the forth time. (No. I've got, no joke, around twelve google docs for this fic and I'm not starting more.)

And one last thing, what would you guys like to see in the next chapter? 

A- Sakura goes to their uncle's and aunty's for dinner and beat up her 'rival'  
B- We get Ichika (You'll know who she is if you read the two chaps I yeeted) and send Kokai off to the academy for graduation, family drama ensues  
C- Inko is introduced, the lovely little prick that he is  
D- Start the Yakuso arc, which will lead into the Uchiha clan massacre arc (Both au, the Yakuso arc is my au brain child so not anime/manga canon based in the least)  
E- Start the Uchiha massacre arc already and stop stalling  
F- Time skip to Sakura entering the academy (Which in this timeline is only like...2 month away, you'll miss the Yakuso arc, characters will have to be rushed out and it'll be eh in terms of foreshadowing)

Now, foreshadowing is (Pardon my language) the cockblock to all that is good in this fic. Want to start the Yakuso arc??? Well DAMN, you haven't even mentioned them before and you wanna start an arc!?!? BOI. Can you guys tell I've written most of these options? It'll be a massive help to me as a writer if you drop a comment, I'm kinda between a rock and a hard place (That's not a pun either, I wish it was) about the way this fic goes. There's a lot of things I can do here so uh, stay tuned? 

(Ps Imma stop the *~ stay tuned for next time~*, I feel it kinda ruins the immersion.)

OH! And before I leave to find my brain, here's a basic run down of the Yakusos. (this won't spoil anything :P)

Yakuso arc, clan, thing:  
The Yakuso clan is a direct competitor to the Haruno clan in the [REDACTED] industry, they specialise in selling [REDACTED] and is know in the business world to use underhanded tactics to cut down competition. Their rivalry with Harunos, albeit one sided, dates back centuries to before the founding of the shinobi nations, where Yakusos allied with clans that fought against clans the Harunos allied with, leading to bad blood between the two. Like Harunos, the Yakusos are numerous and could be found in all of the major shinobi villages, although the Harunos are bigger size wise and is more concentrated in [REDACTED] separate from the main land, the Yakusos are spread out more equally amongst the land and their main quarters/compounds are built on the main land. 

In this arc, the Yakusos employ [REDACTED] on the academy going Harunos in Konoha, as it houses the densest concentration of Harunos aside from [REDACTED]. Obviously, the Harunos aren't too happy with this development and faced a mortality rate of [REDACTED] amongst their young, leaving all heart broken and with a revenge streak deeper than the curse of hatred. Unknowingly and stupidly because who the hell expects the Harunos to just take the L and let it slide, the Yakusos have indirectly announced war against the Harunos, who are more than happy to use politics and the underground in order to see the Yakusos break. 

And since I'm nice (not really), here's a blurb/ teaser about the Uchiha massacre arc because I've planned about it for weeks and it's not going to waste, feel free to skip this one if you want, again, no spoilers since all important info will be redacted. 

Uchiha massacre teaser:  
Danzo is plotting, [REDACTED] is watching and Harunos are caught in the middle of it all. Follow tired as fuck Harunos, as they wake up at ungodly hours because Danzo just couldn't keep his Uchiha boner in his pants, leading to his hands becoming increasingly grabby and grabby at the wrong place and time. Because come on, WHO THE HELL TRIES TO [REDACTED] FIVE FUCKING METERS FROM TWO CLANS, ARE YOU [REDACTED IN FEAR OF LAWSUIT].  
-Ahem, follow baby Sakura and Sasu-cakes as they deal with a self important [REDACTED] who thinks they single handedly [REDACTED], and thus saved Sasuke from a life of revenge. Leading to Sakura quite literally bursting a vein, Sasuke on the verge of homicide and Naruto more done with [REDACTED] than Kakashi with life. 

Oh and this author's note is brought to you by RAID: SHADOW LEGENDS-

In all seriousness this is a legitimate dilemma of mine, it would help immensely if you guys offered your opinions about the direction of this fic. I can't wait to hear from you all and happy reading! :D


	4. Broken hairclip and silky blonde hair (Yakuso arc pt.1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay y'all! The Yakuso arc has officially started!

“Nii-chan?”

He hums from the table, hand scribbling away at something she’s too short to get a look at. Sakura places the glass of apple juice in from of him, it makes a sharp thump. She grins.

He glances at the apple juice and sighs. “Do you realise there’s no need to–” He leans his face against his palm. “–‘Bribe’ me?” He raises his eyebrows on ‘bribe’.

She pouts and climbs onto the chair. “But isn’t it what you do when you want someone to do something for you?”

“One, that’s only when you’re doing something highly dubious, two, we’re family and three, unless you want me to kill someone, no.” He chuckles. “But I’m guessing you want to buy some dango?”

“...Actually…” She sucks in a breath between her teeth as cold runs up her back. “I was thinking maybe like a, like a…Hairclip?”

“Why? Did you suddenly become interested in dressing like that one magazine you keep–”

“–What! No!” Heat rushes up her cheeks. “I’m not girly at all!”

He smirks. “I didn’t suggest that.”

“Well–!”

“Alright I’m heading out!” Their grandmother shuffles across the room and slides on her sleeveless jinbei top, she scratches at her white brows. “Don’t burn the house down Sa-chan, keep away from the stove. And don’t strain yourself too much Inko, if I find you out on the yard doing katas I’ll split your knee open.”

“Okay granny Chichi!”

“I won’t.”

She grins and her smile lines crease. “Alright you two, take care of yourselves. I’ll be back in time for dinner and tell Ko-chan Asagao’s finished with her Haori.” With a playful salute she clicks shut the door behind her, probably rushing off for work.

Sakura shifts in her chair to face her brother. “Actually, why are you home so early?” She squints at him. “And what’s wrong with your leg?”

“Finished the mission early, broke a femur and tore a few muscles on the way back.” He jots something down on a yellow notepad. “Nothing severe, just need some time is all.”

She taps the tables a few times as silence settles over the table, she glances around uncertainly, nerves coils around her stomach. “So, uh.”

“Why do want a hairclip?” Inko says as he orders the papers into a neat pile. “You’ve always refused one when I asked.”

“Well,” She mumbles and pushes her fingers down on the wood. “I kinda broke, well not kinda, but someone’s hairclip is now in pieces.”

“Did you get into a fight again?”

“No! ...No I didn’t, I just… accidentally kicked her.”

He pushes his black inky bangs off his face and hold them against the top of his forehead. “Sakura.” His charcoal eyes stare blankly into hers. “How do you _accidentally_ kick someone.”

She can’t meet his gaze. “Well you know– my foot just kinda flew into her face and well it wasn’t on purpose and I didn’t mean to kick her but..” Her ramblings fades off into a mumble towards the end as she fiddles with the edge of her shirt, she peeks at Inko and cringes into herself. “I swear I didn’t mean it! It’s just that she was there when I kicked and my foot just kinda hit her but–”

“Did you get into a fight.”

“I–” She deflates in her seat like slime. “…Yeah...”

“And you broke her hairclip because you were in brawl.”

She shoots up straight, indignant. “But it was a big kid! They were like twelve or something and they were picking on Sasuke!”

“Sakura.” He raises an eyebrow. “We both know that your definition of picking is very different from what the word implies.”

She slumps. “Okay, he wasn’t picking on him. But he was _rude_.” The word is stressed as if she were announcing someone’s hanging. “He was making fun of Sasuke okay? It’s not like I can just stand there.”

“You could have walked away.”

“Yeah but–” She twists the hem of her shirt. “–I was just really angry ya know? Cuz’ they weren’t just picking on Sasuke, they were making fun of Uchihas too and I got really mad.”

He eyes her. “You said they were twelve? Were they a genin?”

“…No…” She sighs and slobs over the table. “…They didn’t have a head band.”

Inko hums, reaches over and pats her head gently. “Well I’m glad that you stood up for the Uchihas, but you should’ve known not to engage in street brawls, especially with civilians.”

“I’m sorry…”

“Don’t say that to me, say it to the girl you kicked.” He exhales from his nose, a slightly disappointed puff. “Let’s go buy the hair clip then, least you meet the girl again and make her cry.”

“It’s was an accident!”

“Yes yes, an accident.” He gets up from the chair and leans on the table for support. “Of course. Go get dressed and we’ll set out for the market.”

“Thanks nii-chan!” She throws herself onto him for a hug before scrambling away to get dress. “I promise I’ll be quick!”

Inko stares as she trips twice on the way to the stairs and barely avoid breaking her neck, she flaps her arms around, re-gains her balance and went (tripped) her merry way to change. He chuckles before a grimace pulls at his lips. He shakes his head free of those thoughts.

Sakura grins even as her shirt gets stuck on its way off, she fumbles with the ensnared fabric for a bit before she backtracks, pulls the shirt back down before it finally comes off with a ‘swish’. The thing about changing is, is that you don’t just change from one outfit into the next like a reasonable human being, rather, you stand there ass naked for a good while just contemplating the meaning of life, then you waddle over to your closet and stare at your clothes for a few hot seconds– sorry, minutes, have an existential crisis and _then _get changed.

And then you realise your vest is inside out.

Sakura huffs, shifts out of her vest and puts it on the right way out. She goes to check her outfit in the mirror blinks at her reflection. A young boy blinks back, his short bubble gum locks hanging just below his chin, bambi green eyes eerie against his not quite tan skin. She opens her mouth and the boy does too, he brushes his bangs and then glances over his teeth, she smiles, satisfied that her teeth doesn’t look like seaweed central. The boy then straightens his short sleeves, dusts off his high collared rust red vest and grins, giving his beige merchants shorts one last brush before he shuffles out of his room.

“Ready?”

She nods as she hops down the last step of stairs. “Yep!” With too much bounce in her steps she skips up to the door, jumps off the genkan and stuffs her feet in her sandals, its straps press like blunt blades against her heel.

He flicks her cheek and smirks at her small ‘oof’. “At least put your shoes on properly, or are you just that eager to spend time with your amazing big brother?”

She straps her foot in without pause and gives him a blank stare for good measure.

He sighs. “I’ll take your judgemental stare as approval.”

“Nii-chan?” She squints with a snarky grimace. “You’re starting to sound like Uchiha.”

Inko’s face flatlines. “Which one?”

“The annoyingly cheery one.”

“Shisui?” He twists open the mahogany door.

“Oh I though his name was Shushi or something, but that makes more sense.” She chuckles out a sheepish grin and follows after Inko, stepping out the door with a skip. A dubious glance. “He’s not coming back right?”

“It depends.” He says with an easy tone. “Come on now, one matter at a time, let’s go get the hairclip.”

Sakura punches the air with both her fists and screams out a ‘yeah!’. “Let’s goooo!” She laughs (maniacally) and bounces away towards their gate.

Inko huffs in amusement and strolls after her, letting the younger lead the way.

Their house is on the outer ring of the compound, two story tall like most Haruno housings. It was built back when Konoha was founded, back when her grandfather was still around to have screaming matches with Tobirama, the famed second Hokage himself (She’d rather not disclose what they argued about, least the current Hokage decides to announce that a dead clan isn’t so dead after all). Safe to say they’ve upgraded the house to keep up with the times, heck, she wouldn’t know how to take it if they still had to shit in a hole in the ground, they’ve got flushing toilets and all, they’re not _Hyuuga_ level traditional.

The house itself is like any other in the Haruno compound; it’s got more than five bedrooms, a nice fenced yard out the front and plastered to shit in plants and lanterns. The house itself is made from various shades of limestone and framed with wood from Ash blooms woods, the name sounds ominous but it’s really not, its just that the plants that bloom there take on the colour of ash. The wood that grows there has a blackened cross section, almost as if it were turned to coal from inside while its bark became grey with its loss of life. Its morbidly strong too, strength almost on par with A grade steel, but of course they don’t sell it or make it into weapons, nope, it’s just used to build pretty houses and the occasional jewellery on the odd festival or two.

She takes a right turn onto the fifth ring.

Remember when she said they live on the outer rings of the compound? It wasn’t metaphorical. Their compound is built in rings with houses curving around circular streets, it’s like one of those circle mazes you stir the bead around to solve. You’ll see the same structure in the Uchiha compound, but with theirs its more angular, with clear sharp turning streets rather than a never ending maze.

“Sakura! Inko! Come over here you two, haven’t seen you two in days!” She waves Inko over. “And you in weeks!”

Sakura grins and bounds over to the older woman. “Hi Aunty!”

“Good morning.” Inko tips his head in polite greeting.

“You don’t have to be so formal Inko, we’re all family here.” She chuckles and blows a loose white strand that fell out of its ponytail. “My! If I were any older I’d say my eyes are failing me, did you grown even taller Sakura? You were only up to my hip when I last saw you.”

“Children do tend to grow like weeds.” An uncle pipes up across the street from his porch, he scratches at his pale blue beard. “I blinked once and my kids were already flying out of the nest.” He takes a sip of his tea as his raise his eyebrows teasingly. “You only recently came back from a mission, you sure you’re not getting too old for this Ren? Having that bad of a memory at thirty is quite the record.”

She tuts. “Oh, hush. If I didn’t see you melting in Usagi lap I would think you have as much compassion as a shit smear.”

“Why you-!” There’s a flush of pink along his tan cheeks. “-leave Usagi out of this!”

Ren unseals something from a scroll on the table, unfolds to her full height and stares the blue haired man down with a confident smirk. “My my! It would seems my memory’s still as sharp as a whistle then!” She pushes some bandage rolls into Inko’s hand and a pouch of tea into Sakura’s. “Here you go sweeties, some herbal compression bandages for your knee and tea mix for muscle recovery, take care now!”

The uncle stands up with a fired up scowl. “The only thing that’s sharp here is your stupidity!”

“That’s rich considering your brain is as smooth as a mug–!”

Inko and Sakura snickers (well, Inko did a nose huff thing but it’s basically the equivalent) out a thanks before slinking off away from the bar brawl in the making. Inko takes a sniff at the bandages and hums appreciatively. “Who knew she had the time make these?”

“I just don’t know how she managed to go to Hanagasumi for these herbs.” Sakura squints inside the pouch of tea, giving the loose leaves a little shake. “I’m pretty sure these only grow in Craning sprout.”

“It’s possible she requested them from Riku.” He seals it away with smile. “I heard he had to deliver news to the elders.”

“Again?” She picks out a leaf and chews on it thoughtfully. “That’s the third time this week.”

He nods to an aunt in greeting with a smile. “Good morning.”

“Morning Aunty!” Sakura follows suit happily, waving at the woman like a sugar fuelled puppy. She ties the pouch back up and stuffs it into her pocket. “Do you think it’s about the clinics?”

“Why? Did someone experiment with explosive storage seals again?”

“No?” She says, giving the leaf one last chew before swallowing it like a tic tac. “A few weeks ago the clinic had a lot of people for some reason, they said to separate the infected ones and keep them apart since it was really infectious, still don’t know why but they’re all staying alone for now.”

“Infected?” He narrows his eyes. “There wasn’t any mention of this in the Konoha Hospital.”

“I dunno, they say Konoha’s keeping the news in but I think all clans but the Izushis know about it now.” She scratches her head and frowns. “All I know is that the Inuzukas aren’t happy about it and neither are the Uchihas, Rei was talking about how her pack leader was mad about the Hokage’s decisions or something.”

Inko’s eyes dull as information click into place. “Hm, I see. Have you heard about the symptoms?”

“I haven’t seen it with my own eyes but,” she says after a thought, “You know Uncle Haruto works at the clinic up north right? So I was talking to him the other day and he said to watch out for people who look like they have the Chakra flu, apparently it starts out like that but then the fever gets worse and there’s no sneezing or coughing, just Chakra flu symptoms and then a really bad fever.” Sakura fishes the tea pouch out and pops another leaf in her mouth. Her eyes burn neon as shadows falls over them. “It sounds horrible you know?”

He hums and mentally notes it down. “Well, let’s hurry for that hairclip before the market rush starts then.”

“Alright.” She nods, forcing cheer into her voice. “Are you gonna talk to Aunty Ren about it?”  
“Possibly.” He smiles but it doesn’t reach his cheeks. “I’m sure she would have spotted the same things as I, but let’s hurry on now, frown lines are no use for someone your age.”

Sakura might be six but she sees the end of a discussion for what its worth, so she forces the topic out of mind and trusts that her clan has it covered, hopefully it’ll be over before the acceptance board is put up for the Academy. “And on we go!” She skips ahead, as carefree as her now cautious mind can be. With a grin she turns right again and out of the last ring of the compound, coming face to face with the shivering wails of a looming forest.

“Where do you think you’re walking into?” Inko says with his eyebrows raised.

She blinks and does a 360 on the spot to face him. “A shortcut.”

“You’re not wrong,” he muses as he catches up to her in an easy pace. “But it will cost you a limb or two.”

“But we were fine the last time we took this way.”

“With your sister?”

"Yeah?”

He blinks slowly.

“Nii-chan…” She squints up at him, whatever idea he’s Einsteining up in there will probably kill her or make her lose a limb or two.

He smiles like a cat who caught the mice. “I suppose this can be considered an impromptu training session.”

“It’s not going to kill me right?” She asks, dubious about her probabilities. “Nii-chan?”

“You’ll be fine. When I was younger,” he muses, “my father would often take me and my brothers out into the woods for survival training, the five of us would hunt down bears the size of boulders and make it into stew, we came out in one piece every time.”

Sakura blinks. “Nii-chan, is this about your…?”

“It is.” He chuckles and steps over a fallen log. “I just like to reminisce about the past, don’t mind me.”

They tread through the outer layer of the forest, the one separating the clans from civilians; Hope forest is its name, she heard the first Hokage summoned it from the ground as some sort of half assed wall for the budding village. it’s why it feels so oppressive, dense and thick like frozen batter. Her friend, ice-pick Kei as she’s lovingly dubbed, nearly had an asthma attack from just standing in the middle of it. She feels bad for Kei considering that the Inuzuka compound is located around the thickest parts of Hope forest, half swallowed by it even. She was talking about how surgery might help with her breathing, something about it being more expensive than black market organs(She doesn’t know why she compared it to the black market ones, those are dirt cheap), so she’s just making do with stupid Yakuso herbs for now and hope her lungs doesn’t decide to chuck itself out the window.

Her eyes bulge as she’s yanked back by the scruff.

“I hope you’re not daydreaming.” Inko smiles and points to the web of ninja wire that nearly diced her like watermelon cubes. “I’m not going to save you next time so keep your eyes open till we get out, hm?”

She pouts and rubs at her neck. “Alright alright I will, don’t need to rinse me for it.” She says as her foot nearly gets chomped by bear trap. “Why are there bear traps!?” A cry and she’s dodging for her life, kunai wiz out from trees, close enough to draw blood from the tip of her ear. There’s a chink of steel on steel and wind spit in her eyes and she gasps. Short strands of pink whish wash down like feathers.

Inko tuts and sheathes his katana. “I wasn’t joking about losing limbs.”

“Why was there a bear trap?” She gaps, eyes flittering from the kunais embedded in the tree behind her and the one that would have skewered her brain. “Literally _no one_ uses _bear traps_!”

“Harunos are famed for three things Stary.” He draws out her nickname sarcastically. “One is their temper, two is their size, and three is their unconventional weapon choices.” A sigh. “We’ve got clansmen dispatching shinobi with ribbons and bar darts, bear traps are essentially drinking beer while your friend chugs rubbing alcohol.”

“Wait.” She doesn’t dare move from her spot, sweat gathers on her neck like ice cubes. “So, you weren’t joking about using this–” She gestures to the forest around them with a flap of her arms. “–as training?”

His eyebrows push up in disbelief. “I never joke about training.”

She lets out an enlightened ‘ah’. “Ahhkay, that makes a lot a sense, a lot of sense, yep, explains a lot.” She glances at the kunai. “Is it too late to back out?”

The only answer she got was her brother’s retreating back.

“No? No.” She sighs, reluctantly following him further into Hope forest. Knowing this is for training her brother will probably take a detour, lots of detours, she just hopes she’s still got her limbs attached when she comes out of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter may seem like it's been in the works for a month (It has, I'll put all the parts I deleted in 'not you, never you, the bits that didn't make the cut', there's like 7,000 words that I've cut out when this chapter is like...3,000 words [;_;]), check that out if you'd like to see some additional content!  
As always, I post frequent updates on tumblr about progresses of my fics, there's about two more fics I've got in the works (both Sakura-centric), one will be pretty exciting for the people who preferred option 1 or 3 ; ) (Wink wonk). 
> 
> Anyways, I hope you guys stay safe out there and know that the light will shine brighter in the dark, hang in there and remember to wear masks! 
> 
> @monmonjimae on tumblr or #smokes and constant on tumblr (It's where I put all the related stuff)


	5. Hair clip and dinner

Sakura sighs as she picks another metal shard out of her vest, each little shrapnel hooked onto the fabric like leaches. She doesn’t know how her brother came out without a single scratch, all he has is some soot on his sandals, compared to him she looked like she battled a spikey chimney and lost the match.

“You’ve got some cuts on your cheek.” He gestures with a jar of antiseptic.

She takes the jar with mixed feelings but pushes those aside with a huff, opting to ensure that she doesn’t die of an infection. She slathers what looks like too much on her face, hisses at the sting and proceeds to torture herself even more by slapping it on her legs and arms. By the time she was finished with her arms the antiseptic cream had began to melt, small drops of it mixing with soot and blood, dripping down her cheeks like candle wax. It was demonic really; there’s this small girl positively bathed in blood and soot, blood is dripping down her face and it looks like her skin is melting with it, and you can see each droplet slowly crystallising into the most gruesome wax. Never mind looking like a demon, she was the demon’s nightmare.

Her vest is frayed at the edges, a stray flame fried the nylon threads to dust. Her shirt, sorry, half a shirt was torn. They had to ditch one of the sleeves because a trap spat acid on it. Her pants are fine for the most part, just a few soot stains here and there, which is great since she didn’t want to get jailed for flashing people.

Inko was still Inko, high collared jacket is soot-less and zipped, standard shinobi pants went ignored by the various blades and poisons. The only damage to his clothing was the odd cut or two on his sandal.

She’s not jealous she swear.

She gave her limbs a once over and hands the jar back to her brother, satisfaction dulled by the fact that it felt like fire ants crawled up her ass and decided to eat her skin for dinner. Okay, that was an exaggeration, it felt like twelve geese looked at her and went ‘hey that looks like a weak snack, lets kill it’, and proceeds to do so while using fire throwers and flaming cabbages. It itches like ants pinching at her skin but she refrains from scratching the heck out of it; mainly because her brother is breathing down her back, and he, being the great big brother that he is, would have no qualms against throwing her back in there tied to a log. 

Maybe out of pity or the small amount of empathy in his heart, he gestures for her to stay still and she complies. He breaks off most of the now solid wax tails down her skin and tosses them over yonder, fumbles with his pack, brings out another jar and goes over every wound again.

Sakura gets why dog are so happy when you scratch their itch now.

“Better?” He says, putting everything back into their rightful place.

“A lot.” She sighs dreamily. “Thanks but not really Nii-chan.”

He raises his eyebrow.

“I- I mean you’re the best Nii-san!”

Inko snorts quietly, nor of a huff. “I’m joking, don’t be so quick to panic.” He says. “Well either that or you’re a kiss up.”

Her face flatlines and the humour flushes out of her. “Nii-chan please stop hanging around Shisui, he’s a bad influence.”

“Shush, let the grown ups give the advice.” He eyes her outfit and glances at the houses at the edge of their vision. “Would you like a new shirt?”

“Can I get a headband too?” She says before gawking at his look. “What? My bangs get in my eyes and it’s really itchy!”

“Of course you may.” He smiles and flicks her cheek. “Wouldn’t want people to think that I brought a new dog.”  
She furrows her brows. “But we don’t have any- Nii-chan!” The punch never reaches him and she’s not sure why it’s suddenly hot… Nope, that’s just her face. “I’m not dog! At the very least I’m a cute puppy!”

“That’s the same thing.”

“Well-” Her brain screeches to a halt. “Well your face and stupid is the same thing!”

That earned a snort out of him and Sakura’s face _burned_. “Hey! Don’t laugh!”

“Alright lets get you that headband hm?” He chuckles.

“And a shirt.”

“And a hair clip for the girl you kicked”

“Accidentally.” She stresses.

He doesn’t look too convinced. “Of course, accidentally.” A silence stretched on when he saw the guilt in her face, he sighs. “Hey, cheer up, if it’s an accident you shouldn’t fell too bad about it hm? Just apologise and all will be forgive.”  
“Nii-san I gave her a bloody nose.” She emphasises. “And probably a really bad bruise too- on her face!”  
“Do you feel bad about it?”  
“I mean.” Sakura reels back. “Kinda, yeah.”

“Then lets get that hair clip and you can apologise, hm?”

She gives a hesitant nod. “You think she’ll forgive me?”  
“I’m uncertain.” He says. “But you won’t know the results unless you try.” Inko huffs from his nose, mouth twitching into a smile. “Come on-” He flicks her in the forehead a bit harder than necessary. “-lets go get the hair clip, and if you’re lucky, we might pass by Mitashi dango.”

“Dango?” She blinks. “Dango!” Sakura whoops and punches the air in celebration, her previous woes vanishing in the face of dango. “Dango!” With a smile so big it hurt she squeals, threw a kiss into the tree and shakes her brother’s arm as of to strangle it. “Dango Nii-chan! Thank you!” She stretches you the ‘you’ and swings around his arm like a firemen. “Come on lets gooo!”  
Her brother chuckles and peels her from his arm. “Alright alright, don’t tear my arm off.”

“Dango!” She chants, excitedly hopping away. “Dango!”  
Inko shakes his head, a smile on his lips but melancholy on his mind. He follows after her at an easy pace, watching the blob of pink swing around lamp poles and dance questionably down the sides of fences. Inko wishes that this will never end.

It didn’t take long before they saw the edge of the market district, a few people became crowds of people, shops and stalls each talking haggling at great volumes, the smell of hustle and bustle welcoming them like a hug.

The Konoha market is weird, there was never clear sections of produce to produce; the bakery was next to the weapon smith, a tailor sets up shop in the middle of a meat market, vegetable being sold alongside plates of jewellery. It was a city planner’s nightmare (or wet dream, you never know), but it’s how it’s always been. And again, you can blame the first Hokage. That guy knew an empty pot and a half about city planning, why sewer deposits should be farther away and the water closer, how vital services should be in the centre instead of houses, why public training grounds were a mess and a half. You could ask a stoner who’s as high as a kite to design a city and it’ll end up better than this. Sadly, by the time the second Hokage took the seat it was already too late, Konoha had gotten used to its dubious settlement (and it would cost too much to make it actually functional). It wasn’t until the first shinobi war when Iwa quite literally broke the village, that Konoha figured out they should probably leave the city planning to the experts. The second Hokage tried, but he was barely better than the first.

“Sasuke!” Saukra yells when she spots the boy across the street. “Hey!”

Inko smiles at the mother son duo. “Good morning.” He says lightly.

“Inko-kun, how was your mission?” Mikoto smiles, walking over with Sasuke in tow. “And Sakura-chan, when did you get this tall? Slow down a little alright?”  
Sakura grins out a ‘hello’ and straightens. “I was always this tall, bet when I get older I’ll be taller than Sasuke!”

“No you won’t.” He grunts, disgruntled. “You’re not even close to how tall I am right now.”

“Well you don’t know, I might get growth spurt and leave you in the dust.” She sticks her tongue out for extra affect. “Shorty.”

She could practically see his steam meter go up, Sasuke scowls but it came out as more of a pout. “Even if you’re taller you’ll never be as good as me with kunais.”

She smirks. “Oh yeah? I dodged twenty kunais today!”

“I threw _thirty_ and they all landed in the centre.” He smirks and crosses his arms. “_And _I learned how to make rice balls.”

As if a switch was flipped Sakura gritted her teeth in mock of a smile, stares Sasuke dead in the eyes and squares up to him. “Rice balls are just squished rice, they’re so easy a dog can make them.”

“And dango is just chewy baby food.” A vicious sneer merges with his smirk as he doubles down on his insult. “But that’s what you are right?”

She sneers and grabs a fistful of his stupidly high collar. “You take that _back_.”  
“It’s easy to take stuff from a _baby_.” His onyx eyes narrow as he grips on to her collar with the intent to choke. 

The air is thick between them, like gasoline sliding down a victim’s nostril, ready to combust at any moment. They’re both pulled tense at their shirts, either one could die at the drop of a pin. Sakura’s arm tenses.

She snorts.

Sasuke’s snarl breaks into a smile.

“Super secret ninja move!” She shakes his collar like a grasshopper and retreats before he could latch on to her arm.

He pretends to fly through hand signs. “Tickle no jutsu!”

She goes down laughing as he tickles the living water out of her, face red as a beet she tries to push him off with no luck. “I give I give!” Sakura giggles. “You win!”

Sasuke puffs his chest like a preening peacock. Sweet sweet victory. “Sasuke one, baby food zero.”

“Aw come on, it’s not _baby food_.” She pauses for dramatic affect. “It’s… _The food of the Gods_.”

He eyes her suspiciously. “Why are you so dramatic today?”

“Adrenaline.”

He takes the reason without pause, having grown up with her peculiar ways.

“You wanna come with me and Nii-chan to Mitashi dango?” She says, glancing at her aunt and her puffy under eyes.

“Can’t.” He huffs and blows one of his side bangs away from his eyes. “Have to get dressed up for a special clan meet up thing.”

Sakura crosses her arms. “Aw what? But that’s boring grown up stuff.”

“Yeah but I’m the clan head’s son, apparently I _have_ to be there.” He picks at his white coat as if that will smoothen the wrinkles. “Can your

clan adopt me?”

“Well yeah but it’ll probably cause a riot.”

“Worth it.” He sighs and rubs at his cheek.

She stares at him.

His face is whiter than she’s ever seen it, it looked like maybe he’d used too much sunblock but the closer she got to him, the clearer it became that he was sickly pale. The Uchiha are famed for their light porcelain skin only rivalled by the Hyuuga, however there is a world of difference between ‘born like this’ pale and ‘I’m about to croak’ pale, and right now Sasuke was around ‘hey Imma faint real quick’ pale.   
Her Aunt wasn’t fairing much better. Mikoto’s makeup gives life to her face but her swollen eyebags gives it away, there was a sway to her posture as if her bone were made of match sticks, held together for dear life through sheer will power alone. Mikoto laughs gently to her brother’s comment, brushing away his subtle concerns.

“You sure you don’t wanna get dango with us? We can get take out and stuff and eat while we walk.” She says, eyebrows furrowing.

He replies with a pout. “Sakura you can’t just eat and walk, people are going to think you have no manners.”  
Sakura shrugs. “Where are you going for the dress up anyways, cuz we’re going to go buy a hair clip after dango.”

His face flatlines. “Hairclip? _You?_”

“It’s not for me you know.”

“Who then? Your plants?”

“Well aren’t you just an absolute angel.” She huffs out sourly. “No. It’s for the girl I accidentally kicked.”

“Which one?”

“I’ve only ever accidentally kicked one Sasuke. Don’t be grumpy.”

He purses his lips and grumbles. “I’m not.”  
“You are.”

He never replied after that, didn’t even bother making it subtle that the conversation was now over. With dissociated eyes he stares at the snow layering the ground, his hair sways in the wind, almost falling out of its short ponytail.

She fidgets a bit and tugs at her shirt, muttering about snow to fill in the silence. “After you get your fancy clothes and stuff, wanna go to the park?”

He nods.

Sakura pouts, about to voice her complaints when Sasuke reaches over and tugs at her arm. She closes her mouth with a click.

Her ears pick up on faint whispers from her brother, she strangles down the instinct to stare at him openly, opting to twiddle her thumbs instead. Her aunt seems to deflate with every word that comes out of her brother’s mouth, but she pulls her spine straight and puts up a façade of strength. There’s an itch in her chest, screaming that that she needs to know and she needs to know _now_.

Sasuke looks between her and then at his mother, gesturing with urgency.

She shouldn’t, she really shouldn’t; her granny says that eavesdropping does nothing but put a price on your head, but she always stresses you should be subtle if you don’t want to be killed, so if she’s subtle, then it’s okay. Yeah, it’s okay if she’s really sneaky about it, she justifies, just gotta be subtle.

“The council has decided it seems, they reasoned that it was to prevent spreading unnecessary panic. Although I’m not sure of their intent.” Mikoto says quietly, voice easily lost outside of their little bubble. “Much has happened since, Fugaku tries to keep it under control but I’m not sure how much longer we have, there’s not enough time.”

“The elders will back you, our clan won’t hesitate.” Inko assures, trying to lighten the weight on her fragile shoulders.

She sighs as if she wants to cry. “I’m afraid that might only complicate the matter, Itachi is young and Sasuke is younger. Who knows what that man might pull if we give him more ammunition against us, force wouldn’t work this time, not without a war.”

“Maru’s owed a lot of favours and he wouldn’t mind calling them in, he knows the Uchiha and that’s all the confirmation he’ll ever need.” He says, certain in his judgement. “He can provide a political barricade, at the very least buy you time.”

“It won’t be enough,” She stresses, “politics are null in the face of battle Inko, the police force has run its due and soon there’ll be no use for us. We have to move.”

He pauses, filing his thoughts carefully. “There is space.” He says. “And she would gladly accept you.”

Mikoto nods tiredly and her shoulders gain a new strength. “Okay.” She says simply. “Okay.” Mikoto smiles. “Take care of yourself Inko, and remember to eat your vegetables Sakura.” She puts her hand on her son’s back. “Tell Oba-san we’ll bring some radish, the garden is fruitful this year.”

Sakura gets the hint and waves goodbye. “Bye Aunty, bye shorty.”

She isn’t surprised when he signs a rude word behind his back.

The duo fades into the crowd like ghosts, their tracks hidden by the busy foot traffic around them.

Noise bleeds back into her ears and she jumps at the change, has it always been this loud? She nearly un-screws her head trying to find the loud noise, but it’s everywhere, as if someone filled the space with sponge and suddenly took it away.

Inko smirks and shows his left hand, there’s nothing on it. “You’ll learn.”

Sakura blinks hard and can’t help the speculation consuming her thoughts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo, sorry about the long wait, you'll know why if you've seen my tumblr. I think this is the longest chapter yet in this fic with...2700 something words? Not much to say about this chap since it would spoil some things ;) and in other news, remember when I asked you guys for advice on how the fic will run? Well, I've decided to write a separate fic with all the dark aspects that I planned to put into this one. Don't get me wrong, this fic has 'dark aspects' but it's more of a light comedy drama thing, the next one will be fully dark and psychological if you may. And to keep things exciting, the plot will have difference and go down different paths, just with the same characters and base info. I'm planning on releasing it when we get up to the academy arc in this fic, so both fics will develop at the same time. But before that, I'll have to finish ch 5 as promised, which might be a bit of a short chapter since I now have half a day to write and edit. ;-;
> 
> @monmonjimae on tumblr or #smokesandconstants for everything related to this series (also on tumblr)


	6. It begins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a note, kids here are (mentally) developmentally two years ahead of our world, so a six year old would have the mental capacity of a eight year old. :)

“Just one?”

Sakura nods again, sure in her decision.

The store clerk holds the single hairclip in her direction. “Are you really sure?” He points at the pack of hairclips on the next shelf over, “You don’t want the full pack? It’s a lot cheaper that way.”

“No.” She puffs out her chest. “Just one!”

The store clerk stares at her for a good minute, taking in the glory of a child buying one hairclip from a pack of twenty, that _together_ sells for _one dollar. _He looks at (what he thinks) is her babysitter and sees him shrug. Oh well. Kabuto sighs and hands her the purple hairclip, he doesn’t get paid enough for this anyways. “Just take it for free, it’s not worth that much in the first place.”

“Woah really?” She says with stars in her eyes. “Thanks Nii-san!”

Kabuto smiles and chuckles, awkwardness freezing his spine. “It’s no problem, after all, Harunos stick together huh?”

“That’s correct.” Inko smiles and takes the hairclip in Sakura’s place. “Through ice and hell.” He adds as he hands the clip to Sakura, narrowed eyes never leaving the snake’s student. “You’re quite new here hm? Please do show your face around the compound more, our grandparents will be delighted to have a new mouth to feed.”

“I’ll try.” He says. “…Brother.” He tacks on after some thought.

Inko steers his sister towards the exit. “Oh, and one message before I leave.” He stops before the door. “Tell Maru to get his eyes checked, it did not go unnoticed.”

She couldn’t even hide her shock this time, mouth hanging open so wide it would pass as a bug net. “Nii-cha-” The noise dies in her throat when Inko shoves her out the store.

Kabuto sneers under his breath. “Damn it.” Deft fingers unroll a scroll under the counter, fingertips glow with urgency. “That impudent titch!”

Sakura squints up at her brother and fiddles with the hairclip. “What was that about?”

“What was what about?” He quips innocently, making sure his head tilt just enough to cast a menacing shadow across his eyes.

She squints at him but didn’t prod further, it’ll probably get her killed anyways.

They stroll down Gale street and take the first and only right. Silence clings between them like wet socks and Sakura picks at the hem of her shirt, she gives a curious glance at her brother, looks away, and then glances again. Sounds bubble at her throat in the wrong way, she can’t seem to make sense of them and turn it into real words. She huffs, throws up the white flag and let the silence be, even if it makes her skin crawl in the worst way possible.

“This girl you kicked.” He starts and watches his sister sigh in relief. “Did she have blonde hair perhaps?”

Sakura gaps. “Woah! How did you know?” She combs through her imaginary beard jokingly. “Are you a Kumo spy?”

He chuckles. “No, but words do get out when a clan heir is kicked.”

“What.”  
“Well, there was word going around that the Yamanaka princess had been mercilessly beaten by bullies.” He winks and flicks her nose. “So I put two and five together and the numbers said it was you.”

“No, what.” Her face, for what seems like the hundredth time, flatlines. “Nii-chan you’ve been back for less than a day and you’re already caught up with the gossip vine? That’s terrifying.”

“All in the day of a shinobi.” He smiles and nods to one of their many cousins, subtly nudging Sakura to do the same. “But on a serious note, you ought to make this apology private. People will talk and you shouldn’t take them for fools.”

“What?”

He sighs. “People will see you apologise to the heir, hear that someone bullied the heir, you’re a Haruno, Harunos are a lunch of mannerless hooligans and on and on.” 

She makes a ‘psht’ between her lips. “There’s no way you can tell I’m a Haruno.”

He points at their clan symbol embroidered boldly on her sleeves and back.

“…I can cover them up.”

“How? By being half naked?”

She scowls. “I can do better than just taking them off! I’ll go home and change or something!”

“And then be recognised on a different day because you can’t change your face?” He raises an eyebrow. “And don’t think you can pull the ‘I can do genjutsu on me either, even Sasuke can tell from five miles away.”

She cross her arms and pouts. “_Fine_, I’ll listen to the _great wise_ Nii-chan.” She says. “…Not.”

“Excuse me?”

“Nothing! Let’s go you know?” She flashes him a smile and scurries away, there’s only so much tongue and cheek she can get away.

There might be a proverb for that, one that her grandma mentioned offhandedly, ‘never dance on a serene man’s boundaries’ or something, she couldn’t quite remember. Her grandma is always quoting ancient texts, if she didn’t pick up on at least a few she’d be ashamed of herself. Now that she thought about it, her granny looks a bit too young for someone who lived through two wars; just take the current Hokage for example, poor fool looks like he’s about to croak if even a breeze touches him.

‘Maybe it’s just genes,’ she thinks, ‘too bad I won’t get any.’

The houses on either side are squished together now, not in the good homey way either; it was the horribly claustrophobic kind, windows lined up so close from house to house you might as well sue your neighbours for sexual harassment. She doesn’t even know why they bothered with windows. Sad limestone fences sit uniformly five meters from each door, each of them pristine and untouched, as if no one had used them in years. There were a couple lived in ones; where laundry lines fly high across railings, ketchup stained curtains boldly on display, mud and muck splattered across busy garden beds. But they were a few in a million, the ones they’ve passed so far looks painfully empty, miserable at the fact that their only purpose was never fulfilled.

She remembers when she asked her grandma about that, quite a while back, the old woman had shrugged and said it was civilian business, better ask someone more knowledgeable. Never ended up asking any further, comfortable in her ignorance. Maybe she’ll regret her current mindset five years down the line, she muses, maybe then the world is falling apart and her last thoughts are about spooky empty buildings. She giggles at the thought before a chill settle in her shoulders. They don’t talk about that anymore, not since 2 years ago.

“Nii-chan? How far is the park?” She asks, absentmindedly twirling leaf she found on the ground.

“Not far now, another right and we should be there.” He says. “Remember, make it private.”

“I know I know.” She grumbles and tried to whistle through the leaf. “I’m not stupid.” A glance from the corner of her brother’s eye has her wincing, stumbling over herself to amend the mistake. “I mean I’m not a child y’know? Not a bad word or anything, it’s not even a bad word!” She grimaces even harder at his silence. “Oh look the park! Wowee so fast!”

Sakura runs off before her brother has a chance to smack manners into her, she didn’t want to go without dango again, twice was already too much. The first time she lost her dango rights, she had to fight Her brother to get it back. Fight _her brother_; the jounin at twelve, flee on sight of a tank brother. What’s worse what all she had to do was steal a stick from him, _a stick!_ It wasn’t even real fighting with punches and rolls, it was a glorified version of ninja tag, a tortures five hours of scrambling after that damned, wooden _skewer_.

She stops at a random tree, torso slumped against the rough bark, struggling to catch her breath. Who knew sprinting up a hill would take so much out of you?

“Are you okay?”

Ice jolts up her spine as Sakura spins, shock clear on her face. “Huh?”

“I said.” Pupilless blue eyes meet crisp green ones. “Are you okay?”

The girl stares at her for a good few seconds, squinting those weird, clear eyes at her. Sakura briefly wonders if she’s blind but brushes it off, it’s not her business to poke.

“Yeah I’m fine, just ran a bit to fast you know?” She says and tilts her head. The girl looks really familiar for some reason, like a twin of someone that she happened to pass in the streets. She has the same hair; a dusty blonde bob that brushes her shoulders, long side bangs that covers the entirety of her right cheek and a hairclip to pin the other side of her hair back. And the same pupilless eye that all Yamanakas seem to share.

Was she a Yamanaka?

“What about you?” Sakura asks. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing.” She shrugs and sits back down. “Just waiting for my friends to show up, they’re very late today.”

She takes a seat next to the girl, might as well wait with the girl. “Wow really? Are they always so late?”

“I’m not sure, perhaps they are delayed by other activities.”

Sakura picks at the grass, the silence grates away at her insides like acid and she hates it. She opens her mouth hesitantly but shuts it before a sound could break out. “Uh, So, what’s your name?” Words cramp up in her throat again. “You know, like, you don’t have to tell me your last name or anything but just your first name you know?”

She stares at Sakura, face not giving a single emotion away. “I thought it was obvious which clan I hail from?”

“Well… I didn’t want to offend you or anything.”

Cue more staring.

Sakura’s got a feeling she’d mistaken a food tray for a human, sat down next to it and tried to strike up a conversation, even a brick expresses more emotion than the girl next to her. It kinda creepy, really.

“Ino Yamanaka.” She turns away and tucks her chin behind her arms, legs huddled to her chest as if she were in a box. “What’s your name Haruno-san?”

Internally, Sakura is blasting the confines of her mind with tear powered jets. Was her clan symbol seriously that obvious?

“My name’s Sakura you know!” She grins, attempting to bring some light into this conversation. “You can call me Sakura if you want, don’t have to be so formal about it.”

“Okay Sakura.”  
Silence.

Sakura nearly cries from frustration. She was trying to strike up some conversation here woman! Stop road blocking her!

“You’re not very talkative are you?”

Ino shakes her head, face still bearing the emotional correspondence of a tea leaf.

“Is the rest of your clan like this too?”

She shake her head again. “That was rude.”

Sakura blinks. “What was rude?”

“What you said was rude, since it’s outside the correct social limits.” Ino says, beginning her lecture. “‘Is the rest of your clan like this too’ implies negative wording, as the subject is my clan, ‘too’ being used in the sentence implies an insult as the context bears the history of you mentioning me as socially inept, which while not untrue, considering the context of our clan’s work it insults our ability to conduct our work in Intelligence.”

“Oh.” Sakura cringes. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you.”

“That is not the correct wording.”

Oh no.

“Through the use of ‘you’, you are implying that I am the issue, as the unmentioned subjects will not be offended as I did.”

“…Sorry I offended you?”

“This is a level down on the politeness scale.” She tilts her head causally. “It implies that I am the offender, or in simple terms, the problem. A more polite way would be to say ‘sorry, I was not aware of my rudeness.’”

Sakura nods slowly, considering booking it and coming back to apologise to the girl another day. “…Right, right… Sorry I was not aware of my rude words.”

“That is okay.” She nods and goes back to staring into the void. “I am not known for my smooth social mauvers, despite being the clan heir, I am the least suitable for the role.”

“Wait you’re the clan heir?”  
“Correct, the same one you kicked two days ago.”

“I’m sorry!” She jumps up into a bow. “I’m really _really _sorry! I wasn’t watching where I was going and I kicked you instead!”

“There was no offence taken.”

“Huh?” Sakura blinks and rises out of her bow. “Why?”

“Do not worry about why, your apology was accepted was it not?”

Sakura plops down against the tree, leaning against it for support. She could see the edge of the market from up here, against the lone tree on the tall hill, the grass is lush, too tall to seem taken care of. It’s the only tree here actually, perhaps the soil is too dry? But there’s plenty of wildflowers so it doesn’t exactly add up.

She glances at the girl, mind buzzing with questions. “Why do you talk like that?”

“In which way?”

“That.” She gestures with her chin. “All formal and book like, were your bedtime stories medical texts or something?”

Ino looks at her with unblinking eyes, not denying a single thing.

“…No, you’re kidding right?”

She shrugs. “Dad does not keep many children books around the house.”

“That explains a lot.” She sighs and messes with her short locks. “You know, my granny says that humans are like dogs. If they’re not socialised at a young age, they grow up all angry and hissy around humans, and they have a lot more anger issue and stuff.”

“Is that an insult?”

“No.” Sakura glances at Ino. “More just...”

She narrows her blue eyes. “I do not want your pity.”

A laugh bursts out of her throat. “You really are a Yamanaka!” She says, laughing even more when pink starts to dust the girl’s cheeks. “Wow! I thought they were lying about how accurate you guys were!”

“…Stop…” Muffed words buffer against her laugh. Ino presses her face into her arms, seemingly on the verge of tears. “I’m not…”

“I’m sorry!” She trips over herself to apologise, hovering uncertainly around the girl. Should she give her a hug? Poke her? Slap her? “I didn’t mean it as a bad thing or anything! It’s, I- I didn’t mean to be rude! Hey don’t cry!”

Ino’s shoulders shook even harder, even her legs are shaking now!

“I’m sorry! You can- uh, you can slap me or something!” She nods so fast she gives herself whiplash. “Yeah! Like pay back! Slap me!”

It started as a giggle, so soft Sakura thought a ghost was haunting her. That is until Ino bursts out laughing, flopping against the floor as fits of cackles ripple across the air. She’s crying by the time she manages to sit up, wheezing as unlady-like as possible. “I-” Ino laughs, wheezing even harder at Sakura’s tomato red face. “I’m sorry it- You-” She wheezes like a dying seal. “Your face is- was so, funny!”

“Well I’m glad you found my pain funny.” She pouts, crossing her arms with a huff.

She calms down a bit after the five minute mark, during which her face grew so red, it could be plucked to make strawberry salad. “I apologise.” She smiles. “That was rude of me.”

“It’s okay.” She brushes off. “You look very cute when you smile.” She mentions offhandedly, not noticing how Ino’s face became even redder.

“Really?” Her voice breaks at the end and Ino tries to play it off, though her still flushed face gave more away than words every could. “I mean, it is of the acceptable social etiquette to smile in another’s presence, yes.”

“Speaking of social etiquette!” Sakura grins and fishes around her pocket, yanking out the purple hairclip with an ‘aha!’. “I have this to give you! It’s an apology for breaking your hair clip wen I kicked you the other day, sorry about that.”

Ino takes the hairclip gingerly, as if she doesn’t trust herself to give it the care it deserves. It makes Sakura wonder why such a social clan has a socially inept heir, it’s like saying tigers give birth to gazelles, there’s no way it’d be possible. She’s polite, albite a tad too much, nice, quiet and smart. Basically the 10/10 chemical formula for a successful, doted on clan heir.

But then again, she’s known her for a hefty 5 minutes so maybe she’s jumping the gun a bit.

A quick beep shocks Sakura from her thoughts, she squints at the air around them. …Weird.

Ino sighs from next to her and stands up, dusts her skirt free of grass and tucks the hairclip into her front pocket, patting it twice for good measure. “My apologies, I must get going. My presence is needed elsewhere.”

“Okay.” She says simply, gut sinking for some reason.

Ino smiles and begins to walk down the hill. “Goodbye Sakura, I wish your day well.”  
She opens her mouth to say bye, but the knot in her guts just wouldn’t untangle. “Wait!” She shouts, rushing down the hill. “Let’s go together!”

Ino tilts her head but didn’t question further, probably already read Sakura’s thoughts before the girl heard them herself. “You’re worried, why?”

“I donno.” She whispers, giving the hill behind them a suspicious glare. Something was off, it made her hair bristle in a war chant, as if a second longer and a snake would burst from the ground. “Just had a really bad feeling for some reason.”

In twelve hours, panic will engulf the Haruno compound.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops, did I start a war? ;)
> 
> Oh and a little reminder, the past three chapters takes place on the same day, just in case the time frame was a bit confusing. On a different note, what do you guys think is going to happen? A war with the Yakusos? Uchiha massacre? A murder on the loose? Also I just realised how dialogue heavy the last few chapters have been... Ehe?


	7. scamming old men

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back again with the monthly update :D

Sakura follows Ino down the hill, mind half buried in thought.

There was something weird about Ino, and no matter which angle she looks at it, Ino’s attitude is just completely  _ off _ . She’s around her age, grew up in peace times and definitely was not sent out on missions… But her face is like a baked rock, eyes straight ahead, mouth in a straight line and eyebrows always relaxed.

Shouldn’t there be some kind of reaction by now? Even a minute one?

A twitch of the lips? A frightened squeal at the spider web she punched with her face? Something? Anything?

Sakura’s lips pull back a little but she forces them to relax, just like how her granny taught her. Don’t frown or smile, keep your shoulders relaxed and mind empty.

Well that’ll definitely work, she’s standing next to a Yamanaka for heck’s sake, it’s like trying to hide meat from a bloodhound. But then again… It’s not like Ino’s a Senju.

The surname puts a sour taste in her mouth.

Senju, just thinking about that name makes the acid in her belly churn like hot oil. But she shouldn’t think about it here, not next to a Yamanaka. No matter how neutral their clan claims to be, Sakura’s pretty sure they side with the Senju. The fact that they continue to support Tsunade is proof enough.

Ah, Ino’s shoulder tensed, she felt her emotions even without looking at her face huh?

Time for her grand exit!

“Bye bye Ino-chan!” Sakura smiles, pointing up at some point past yonder. “My brother said he’ll wait for me there, I’ll see you later?”

Ino nods, silver blonde bangs brushing the tip of her chin. “I wish you a good day Sakura.”

“Bye bye!” Repeating those words are meaningless but she does it regardless. She skips away as fast (and as nonchalantly) as she can, waving the other girl goodbye when she reached a tree. She watches as Ino walks away, slowly disappearing into the distance; and boy did that take a long time, her brother might have broken another knee by now. 

Speaking of her brother though…Where is he?

A chill runs up her spine.

…Now that Sakura thought about it… She has no idea where she even is. Somewhere, something east of the market but no more details past that. On a scale of one to ten, she’s twelve in terms of fucked. Hopefully her brother knows this area better than she does (he should, really), and find her before nightfall. Her belly is growling in agreement already.

Sakura sighs and sits down on a protruding root, dropping her head into her hands.

This park is peaceful, she admits, a lot more serene compared to the ones usually she goes to. Actually, she’s surprised there even is a park here; it’s not the most normal thing for a children’s playground to be in the middle of a forest. Which adds to the weirdness of Ino Yamanaka, why would she hangout around here? Maybe she’s shy to the high heavens, or maybe (and most likely) she’s over thinking this and it’s none of her business.

Wings beat erratically overhead and fade into the distance– Her head snaps up at the sound –a group of sparrows circles around, looking for the next meal.

“Aw crap.” Sakura pouts, dropping her head into her hands once more. “The sparrows are out for their afternoon meal already,” she says, “well at least the sun isn’t setting.”

A squealing growl echoes from her stomach, she pats at it in sympathy. “I know I know, I’m hungry too. Let’s hope Nii-chan didn’t get called away for a mission again.”

It was stupid of her really, running off by her lonesome into unfamiliar areas; but then again, she’s not known for her rationality or her smarts. Oh well, her goal was accomplished, accomplished stupidly but accomplished nonetheless.

She looks to the direction Ino went and briefly considered trying to find her way back herself. She shakes her head, no, no, no. She’ll end up even more lost than she is now. All she needs to do is wait here and hope her brother comes around, or even her sister, but there’s a fat chance that’ll happen; she’s pretty sure her sister’s still in school.

That’s it!

If her sister is still in school, then that means she’s in the shinobi academy, which is near the centre of Konoha so no matter how lost she is she can always find it! She’s a genius! All she needs to do is find the centre and go in a straight line.

Sakura jumps up, excitedly looking around for the tallest tree to climb.

The Hokage tower is in the dead centre of the village, and is the tallest building in Konoha, just a little higher and she’ll be able to spot it.

She channels chakra to her left foot, lifts the leg, takes a deep breath and pushes off the ground– landing on the tree like a gecko. Her left foot sticks perfectly, giving her enough grip to push off with her right foot. Rough bark cuts into her palm as she grabs onto a sturdy branch and heaves herself up.

Statistically speaking, she has zero core strength. Unlike Sasuke who can just waddle up and down a tree like second nature, poor her must climb unless she wants her spine to be snapped in half (last time she tried her stomach felt like a bread slice being ripped into two, even worse since she could barely keep her back straight!).

She repeats this process a few more times until finally, she breaks through the thick green canopy of leaves and crawls onto the highest branch. She parts away the leaves and squints into the distance to reveal– nothing.

It’s a giant green wall probably twelve-hundred kilometres high. Pouting, she turns the other way and what do you know, bingo. The Hokage tower sticks up among the vibrant buildings like a sore green thumb, it’s the only green building within miles; everything else was either white, blue or red.

She can vaguely make out the shinobi academy too; its red walls and orange roofs out-uglying even the most hideous of colour schemes. Look, she has nothing against the building itself, she really doesn’t – but the  _ colour scheme _ . If there was such a thing as eyeball melting ugliness, this colour scheme would be five levels past that. Come on, neon orange and bright maroon red? Really?

Sakura carefully slides down the tree like a koala, chakra pooling at her palms and feet to slow her fall. It’s a trick her brother taught her a while back, with the right amount of chakra, you can stick to the tree enough to not plummet to your death, and the thick layer of chakra will protect your hands from splinters.

Now safely on the ground, she can finally begin her journey to the Shinobi academy!

She grins and walks hesitantly towards (what she thinks is) the direction to the academy. Dry bark and leaves crunch beneath her feet, trees pass her at a snail’s pace and a little part of her feels like this forest will never end. Trees loom over, shaking their branches in what she feels is laughter. She shakes her fists threateningly at them. 

Her steps speed up until she’s jogging, ducking and weaving between branches as she goes. She glances up at the sky, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Hokage building. To her surprise, rows of red wood tiles peak over the leaves; the ones they usually use in east Konohan houses. It can’t be the Hokage tower, there’s no way she ran that fast, she’s simply too hungry for that. Is she near the edge of this forest already? That was fast, usually Konohan forests are a lot bigger than this. 

Sakura’s face twists into one of contempt, a beat later and she makes a dash for the tree lines; well, what she thinks are the tree lines. She spots a sandy path and jumps for it, leaping over a row of snowy rose bushes. She stops suddenly where others would have slid along the sand, throwing her in for a loop.

It was the basic principle of stick and slide really– She blinks as her training pushes to the forefront of her memory –Condense to slide and expand to stick, the most basic of basic exercises, one that was hammered over and over into her head.

“Huh.” She mutters, staring at her feet in wonder. “I actually did it without concentrating.” A smile breaks over her face as she pumps her fist us excitedly. “Hell yeah! Just wait till they hear about this! I’m getting dango for sure!”

It’s a good day. She thinks happily as she skips along the sandy path, eyes trained on those same red roofs. Her training really did pay off, even if she had to repeat that darn exercise for over a hundred times, she’s finally done it– but what good will that do?

Her face plummets at the stray thought.

By her age, her sister had already mastered this five times over. What advantages does this give her anyways? Help her play tag better?

“No, stop it Sakura, bad, bad, bad.” She slaps her cheeks, clearing her mind of those horrid thoughts. “You did good and they’re gonna be very proud of you! And you’ll get lots an’ lots of dango.”

A sudden laugh from someone’s yard breaks her from her thoughts. She’s nearing civilisation that’s for sure, not sure which district she’s in but at least there’s people now– people!

She looks around and spots a friendly looking woman sweeping snow off their front yard, they look like a civilian; long brown hair flows in curly waves with a blue apron over their soft pink dress.

Sakura hurries over, slapping on the most childish smile she can manage. “Hello Miss!”

The woman jolts and clutches at her heart. “Goodness– Oh, hello there.” She huffs, setting aside her broom. “Gave me quite the scare. Are you lost?”

“I am.” She says sheepishly. “Do you know which way the Shinobi academy is?”

“Shinobi academy?” She raises an eyebrow, eyes floating down to the clan symbol on her sleeves. “Are you looking for someone? A sibling maybe?”

Sakura smiles, nodding eagerly.

“Well I don’t think you’ll have much luck there, it’s been quite a few hours since their classes finished.”

“Eh?”

“Sorry darling, it’s around three pm now, the academy closed two hours ago.” She says, apologetic. “But I can still tell you how to get there if you’d like, it’s not too far away if you hurry.”

Sakura nods again, bouncing on her heels as the woman gives her directions. Chirping out a quick ‘thank you’, she runs like her ass was on fire, speeding down the street as fast as her little legs can take her.

‘Take a left at the store with the big purple sign, then a right four streets down, and then straight ahead.’ She repeats the directions in her head. ‘Take a left–’

A big splotch of purple catches her attention; it’s a giant metal banner guarding a store’s entrance, maybe that’s the sign the lady mentioned?

She turns left, right foot skidding across the sandy path before her chakra catches on, allowing her to make a sharp turn. The action pushes both sand and snow into the gaps of her sandals.

Well that’s great.

Sakura skids to a stop and tears her shoe off, hopping on one leg to keep her balance. She dumps out the yucky stuff as fast as she can and repeats the process with her other shoe, putting them back on as fast as possible and dashing back off along the street.

Faded teal walls fly past her, each window lines with red wood and polished to perfection. Most of them had their curtains drawn– most is the key word here. Some guy with bright red hair was staring soullessly out his window, even passing them briefly made Sakura’s hair stand on end.

“One street.” She counts as she passes what looks like a residential street. “Two streets.”

Something burns in her legs, something familiar called muscle cramps. She grits her teeth. A little muscle pain wasn’t going to stop her, she’s hungry damn it!

“three streets–”

“Get off me!”

She wonders if dango can be– Sakura’s eyes widen, legs freezing to a halt.

“Get–!” A shriek bounces off the walls, echoing between the tight dark space of an alley. “–Stop! I didn’t steal it!”

A deep guttural grunt rings out after a thump, as if they’d thrown something heavy.

“Yes you did you little freak!” They– a man –screams.

Another thump.

“And you better fucking give it back!”

A child cries, high and snotty before it’s cut short, interrupted by what sounds like a kick.

“You said–!” The child screams in pain. “–You said I could have it–”

“And you thought you could!?” Another thump. “Are you fucking stupid!? You brain dead piece of shit!” Thump, thump, thump. “I fucking said that so those damn Harunos don’t get on my back! You try having them breath down your neck!”

Someone hisses in pain, too deep to be a child’s. “Fucker–! You bit me!”

“Don’t talk about them like that!” Spit smacks across the floor. “They’re way better than you ever could be! At least they’re not brain dead!”

The man swore and the smack of a slap echoed out of the alley.

Sakura makes a mad dash towards the sound, eyes wide in anger.

“Now give that mask back before I break–!”

“Hey!” Sakura screams, knuckles clenched white. “What are you doing!?”

A man’s head snaps back, his old eyes wide in what seems to be fear before they narrow. A long dark brown beard covers half his face, messy, booze stained and with what looks like bald spots. He scrunches his nose in disgust when he realises it’s a child. “Oh great, it’s another one of you Haruno freaks. What are you gonna do huh? Go back and cry to your weakling clan?” He laughs and shakes the boy he’s caught by the scruff.

Flames rush down her spine. “Shut up!”

“Oh no.” He mocks. “I’m so scared! Mommy, mommy! What can you even do? You’re a literal baby!”

The boy gives a weak kick at the man’s head and is bashed against the wall for it. His head bounces off savagely, blood drips down his blonde hair and his blue eyes struggle to keep open, nose smeared with blood he struggles again, only to be kneed in the gut.

Something boils in the pits of Sakura’s stomach, something hot, something ugly. “Let go of him!” She rushes forward and yanks at the man’s leg.

He doesn’t budge an inch.

She tries again with all her might but the man’s five times her size; he’s built like a hulking mean bear with a beer belly as big as a nuke, solid muscle coils around his legs and arms, each limb as thick as her torso.

He bats her aside like an ant with glee, revelling in his power over two six year olds.

“Is that all you can do? Oh poor poor baby.” He pouts the last word and bats his eyelashes pathetically, cackling right after.

Something in her chest sizzles like gunpowder, hot tears runs down her sullen face, each tear bringing out a new wave of anger. She hates him, hates him like she’s never hated before. Hates him more than cockroaches, hates him more than Senjus, hates him more than death itself.

She wants him to go boom.

But – Sakura glances at the half-conscious boy– she can’t, not without hurting him.

Sakura tears off her sleeve in one fluid motion and bites a ragged line in her pointer finger, drops to her knees and starts scribbling in blood.

The man pauses, a rock starting to weight in his stomach.

Two curved lines on each side, the kanjis for fire and wood in the middle, three lines of unreadable scribble on top and a vertical line at the bottom. With her eyes narrowing in anger, she adds the final kanji– decay.

“What is that?” He says, the familiar symbol making his heart drop.

Sakura displays the tag and smiles, putting up a front of bravery. “I think you know what this is.” Anyone with a brain would know, so of course you wouldn’t, she wanted to add but held it back.

She needs to get the boy away, detonating the tag or not. He got beaten into a pulp and still defended her clan, there’s no way she can leave him here, she has to help him. Clan pride or not this is a matter of principle. Medics are supposed to help everyone in need, they’re not supposed to neglect anyone for any reason. A blonde woman floats through her mind. She grits her teeth. She’ll show Tsunade what a  _ real _ medic looks like, no matter how young she is. 

Sweat gathers on the man’s brows. “Hey now little Miss… Let’s not make any rash decisions okay?”

“You know what this is? This is the Haruno clan special explosive tag that will kill everything within thirty meters.” Lies. It’s a personal project. “It’s so dangerous even me tapping it will make it go BOOM.” She snarls the last word, heart doing happy flips as she watches the man jump.

‘That’s right you old fool,’ she thinks with vengeance, ‘don’t doubt a single word I say.’

“So if you don’t want me to activate it and–” she drags her thumb across her neck threateningly and makes a slicing sound. “–you better drop him.”

“I’m sorry!” He pleads, putting the boy down gently and bowing as low as he can. “Whatever you do, just don’t activate that tag! Please I beg you!”

Sakura’s eyes narrow. How  _ pathetic _ . She’s drawn one explosive tag and this man is ready to lick shit off her boots, where was that smug face he had a second ago? Even her baby cousin has more self-respect than this weak bully. She sneers. “Then scram!”

The man rushes out the alley, face paler than a whiteboard.

Sakura shoves the tag into her pocket and runs to the boy. “Hey! Hey can you hear me?” She drops into a kneel and pulls the boy’s head onto her lap, wincing when she feels blood soaking through her shorts. “Answer me you know!”

He’s breathing just barely, blood coats his face, his neck and ears. The lower half of his face is more than covered in red, his nose still gushing blood at a steady rate.

Sakura scowls, she can’t tell how injured he is when he’s bundled up like a burrito! It’s not like it’s pissing down with hail! The only visible skin on him is his face and neck; he’s got a knitted winter hat covering all of his head, full fingered black gloves, a long sleeved jacket, pants wrapped at the ankles and full toed boots (who even wears that in Konoha?). The bleeding must be bad on his head if it soaked through his hat, she’ll need to remove his hat, hopefully he doesn’t mind.

“I’m gonna take your hat off okay?”

“No!” He yells as loud as he could (which wasn’t very loud at all). “I’m okay.” He pulls his hat closer to his head. “Don’t… Touch me…”

“I need you to take it off so I can–” Sakura wrestles with his hands. “–bandage it…!”

“Don’t…” He protests weakly, giving the hat one last tug before giving up. “Fine.”

Sakura yanks the hat off with a flourish before she fishes out some salve and bandages from her pocket; her brother had given her some medical supplies after the whole forest training thing, telling her she should start carrying them with her at all times. “Turn over on your side please.”

The smell of old moth balls bursts out as she twists open the salve jar, she scrunches her nose at it and waits for the boy to turn over on his side. When he finally does, she coats her hand in chakra and scoops out a generous dollop. “Alright! This might sting a little, or a lot, probably a lot.” She parts away his blonde locks and looks for the wound, it took a little while before she found it and she kinda wishes she didn’t– there’s a splinter in his head as long as her palm. “Ok, this is going to hurt.”

Channelling chakra into her other hand, she wraps her chakra around the splinter and drags lit out as gently as she can, wincing when she hears the boy cry in shock. She slathers the salve on as soon as the splinter is out and gives him a few pats on the head, just like her family does in praise.

“Tada!” She smiles and speedily wraps bandages around his head. “Better?”

“No. It hurts even more now” The boy wipes at his eyes.

“That’s just the medicine, but at least now you won’t keel over because of some random infection.”

He feels around the bandages with uncertainty only, choosing to ignore her comment.

“Are you okay?” She unrolls the bandage. “Need something to wipe up the…” She gestures to his face. “That?”

“…Thank you.” He mutters, reaching out for the bandage.

“So uh, what’s your name? I kinda skipped the whole courtesy thing where you ask for names and stuff.” She says, scratching uncertainly at her cheek. “Mine’s Sakura! Sakura Haruno!”

“Haruno?” A smile lights up his face… Quite literally. Sakura had to squeeze her eyes shut in pain, grimacing like she bit into a lemon. 

“You bet?” She awkwardly finger guns.

“Why didn’t you say so!” He grins and jabs at himself with his thumb. “My name’s Naruto! Surname’s still Uzumaki but that’ll change soon! Nice you meet you Nee-chan!”

Naruto… Uzumaki…?

Her jaw drops. “You’re  _ that  _ Naruto?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm leaving around a lot of plot threads haha, but don't worry, all of them will be explained in the near future :D
> 
> Also just a side note, if you've gotten this far and still haven't read the tags, this fic is an AU. Everyone here will be highly ooc because I've added two (or more) clans that are not canon. 
> 
> Once again, enjoy your day or night and remember to take care of yourselves! Oh, and a late merry Christmas to all!


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